Rookie Hunter Jeong Jae-ha (1)

Jang Yeong-jun could not believe what he was looking at.

Why did my life turn out like this?

He was never supposed to live this way. The Scorpion Gang ran the Korean branch of Winner Sports, a colossal international gambling site. Trillions of won moved through their hands, and the profits climbed into the hundreds of billions. At that scale, earning money stopped being the work. Spending it was.

How the hell do you run a washing machine like this?

Turning that fortune into money a man could actually use took a long, miserable process. As a rule they went through cryptocurrency exchanges, until one day some bastard with a close tie to an MCN president thought up another way. They would fire off donation chats, and the MCN would cash them out or buy gold bars and hand them back. The fees stung, but with the exchanges sliding deeper into the official system and watchful eyes drawing near, it was a decent enough method. Tens of billions of won in sponsorship money poured into the MCN, and its president laid in hundreds of kilograms of gold bars. The only future waiting for them was one spent living high.

"Why's my payout looking like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this, huh?"

If one sharp-eyed broadcaster hadn't stormed MCN headquarters, it really would have been a perfect crime. Jang Yeong-jun and Kim Gang-oh "persuaded" that broadcaster with the ease of professional thugs.

"You think anyone's gonna believe you didn't know?"

"That cut went to you too. Turn yourself in and you're an accomplice!"

But Lee Hae-il gathered the evidence in the end and drove it into them.

"The only one allowed to run my channel into the ground is me, sir!"

She had talked the MCN president around, they said, and taken every piece of evidence, including where the gold was kept. They had beaten the kid half to death before the arrest, so the first stop was not an investigation bureau but a hospital. An assault charge got tacked on. That was fine. The rest of the crew still had room to push revenge, or a deal.

And then the world ended. Investigators and all the rest of it were simply gone. The MCN president died too. The only person left who knew exactly where the gold was was Lee Hae-il. She volunteered for the Rehabilitation Hunter program in order to awaken. She clearly hadn't expected the Scorpion brothers to volunteer as well. The moment he saw her again, he wondered if this was heaven's will. He thought a chance to live high for the rest of his life had finally come. And yet here he was, burned over his whole body, thrashing in hideous, searing pain.

Why did it turn out like this?

The reason was obvious. Jeong Jae-ha. That goddamned swordsman had ruined everything.

"Die! I said die! Die!"

Jang Yeong-jun screamed through a throat that rasped like metal and hauled on the trigger. The gun stuttered and cracked.

"I know you! I saw the news too. You little shit who ate one bullet and came out a cripple!"

He swapped magazines and poured it on, then poured it on again.

"You know what age this is? Swing a sword all you want — it won't do a damn thing!"

Thud. Thud-thud. Blood sprayed from Jeong Jae-ha's body. His tactical combat suit came apart like a loose knit. But he did not go down. His face did not pale, and the strength did not leave him.

"……Huh?"

If anything, he looked fuller of strength than a moment before. He even planted a hand on the ground and pushed himself upright.

"What, what, what, what, what?! Die! Drop dead! Fuck!"

The gun barked. Jang Yeong-jun slammed a fresh magazine into the empty well and pulled the trigger. Unlike the rounds that had sprayed everywhere, this one flew true, straight for Jeong Jae-ha's head.

A thin hiss of steel. Jeong Jae-ha raised his sword.

Ting!

Jang Yeong-jun's bullet sheared apart on the point of the blade.

"Fuck?"

Jang Yeong-jun's mouth fell open.

For a moment I really thought this was as far as I went. I was the best swordsman in the world, and even that skill had been useless against a single bullet. Even if he hadn't had a gun, I couldn't have gone after Jang Yeong-jun. Bringing down the Pumpkin Drake had finished my right leg completely. The nerves inside the muscle burned as if someone had driven a heated wire through them.

But a hunter's life was not an athlete's.

A long, rushing sigh of power. The joy of it was nothing like what I had felt taking down orcs. Drop an opponent and you could win glory. Drop a demonic beast and you won the glory with the mana the beast had carried. Formless energy poured out of Pumpkin Drake Everor's body. The mana of a C+ beast, no less — several times more than every orc, goblin, and jack-o'-lantern I had killed that day put together.

Get lucky and take down something like a lesser dragon, and you really might recover in a single stroke.

Hong Si-yu's words from a few weeks back surfaced, faint and distant.

Crack. Pop. My body began to change from the inside. As it had at my awakening, everything went numb and tingling, the feeling of a very hard session of manual therapy. My right leg grew fiercely hot, then cooled in an instant.

Thud. A round hit my shoulder then. The tactical suit was already torn away there, and still the bullet skipped off at an angle, leaving a wound as if something sharp had pricked me. It struck me all over again. A 9mm pistol round had once punched clean through my thigh. Now it only bit a little way into skin and muscle. Fencer Jeong Jae-ha had gone down to a single pistol round. Hunter Jeong Jae-ha could shrug a pistol round off.

"Ha."

The fact pleased me more than I could say. I took up the estoc and rose. My right leg moved smoothly. The balance between left and right was not off. It did not tremble. Nothing burned on the inside. One step, it seemed, could take me anywhere — the way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it had been back when the whole world roared every time I swung a blade.

"Die! Please, just die!"

Naked fear was on Jang Yeong-jun's face now. The muzzle was aimed squarely at my face. My eyesight had climbed with the rest of my body, but I still couldn't see the bullet. I could tell where the muzzle was pointed, though. I raised the sword.

Ting!

The lead round struck the estoc's diamond-section blade and burst into dozens of fragments.

"Fuck! He cut the bullet?! You screwing with me?!"

Jang Yeong-jun howled.

I kicked off the ground toward him. One step closed dozens of meters and carried me up the slope. He was suddenly close.

"Die! Drop dead!"

The gun hammered. Jang Yeong-jun seated his last magazine.

I ran in a zigzag and slipped the rounds he poured at me. One or two grazed past, but they couldn't deal me a fatal wound.

I leveled the estoc like a cavalry lance and charged like an arrow leaving the string.

"You know how much we made off Winner Sports?!"

Jang Yeong-jun screamed it, his face twisted out of shape.

"……!"

A word I knew came out of him then. Winner Sports. The international gambling site my coaches had taken bribes from. I wanted to demand, right then, what those men had to do with him.

"Nooo—!"

Thud.

A man with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an estoc through his skull cannot say anything. It was the second time I had stabbed a person. Then and now, nothing in me balked. If anything, accidentally stepping on an ant or a snail at the roadside had left me more uneasy.

"You okay, you okay, sir?!"

Lee Hae-il came running. Badly shaken, half in a panic, she was trembling hard.

"You take a look. Do I look okay?"

I smiled faintly and spread my arms.

"Huh?"

"No. For real. I don't feel like I'm about to drop dead, but I might've caught one somewhere stupid."

"How, how did you survive—"

"We learned this. Kill a beast, absorb the mana, get stronger. I think I got a lot stronger off that Pumpkin Drake."

Lee Hae-il and I looked over the places I'd been hit.

"Yes. You really do seem fine, sir? I mean, I can hardly believe it, but……"

Only the first hit, the one in my flank, had punched clean through. Everything that landed after I took in the Pumpkin Drake's mana had left a wound about a finger-joint deep.

"It's pushing right out, sir."

As the wounds closed, the bullets inside them were slowly being forced back out.

"Looks fine, right?"

I checked only the first through-and-through in the flank with any care. I'd been shot before. I knew the shock hadn't wrecked the muscle around it.

"Yes. If nothing feels wrong to you, Hyung-nim, I think we just finish up and hit the infirmary."

Lee Hae-il went over me from head to toe for a long while, then nodded. The focus seemed to have brought her back to herself.

"Hae-il. You know Winner Sports?"

It was time to get to the point.

"Yes. I know it, sir."

She nodded.

"I heard it from those bastards a while back, sir. They said the Scorpion Gang ran the site's Korean branch."

"You know what happened to them?"

"Followed this piece of shit around until just now, and it looks like they all died caught in the big blast, sir."

She planted a foot and shoved Jang Yeong-jun's corpse hard down the slope. It landed where the fire hadn't died, and the flames took it at once. No one would ever be able to tell whether he had died by the sword, by a gun, or by a beast.

"He was lying a little apart from the rest, so I figure he died trying to run off on his own, sir."

I could feel that what she had done was not looking away. It was consideration.

"The site itself?"

"Oh, that went under ages ago, sir. The world's in this shape. What could possibly be left?"

I closed my eyes, then opened them.

"I see."

The men who had ended my life as an athlete had met their end together with the start of my life as a hunter. I had never expected it to go this way. I was dazed, and something in me was clean.

"Yeah."

I set my right foot hard against the earth and smiled. Then I started toward the sapling I had thrown over there earlier. If I could only see Chae-ha, I could take back everything I had lost four years ago.

"Athlete Jeong!"

A voice calling me came down from the sky.

"Top of the class, Jeong Jae-ha."

My name rang through the training institute's wide auditorium.

"The above Awakener, having completed with outstanding marks the training course of the Rehabilitation Hunter service-conversion program hosted by the Awakener Association and the Ministry of Justice……"

The eight hundred or so Awakeners who had survived the tutorial looked at me and applauded.

"We will now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠present the certificate and the prize."

Hunter Hong Si-yu caught my eye. I stepped up to the dais, and she opened a small velvet box. Then she slid the status-window ring onto the middle finger of my left hand herself.

A low hum. My vision lurched once, then settled back as it had been.

The translucent hologram, a little familiar by now, laid itself over my sight.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

When I looked at Hong Si-yu, a string of holograms was floating above her head as well.

She switched off the microphone in her hand and leaned in to whisper.

"You can see my name and abilities, right?"

"Yes."

"Registered Awakeners can all see each other's names. You can change it in the app so your name doesn't show, but abilities are something the status ring detects and reports, so you can't hide those from the other person."

"Any reason I'd need to hide them?"

"Proud of them, are you?"

"No need to be ashamed of the work you're doing. If you were ashamed, there'd be no reason to do it."

I answered in the same low voice.

"Very much like you, Athlete Jeong."

Hong Si-yu smiled as if my answer had pleased her a great deal.

"I'll contact you in a bit, so could I see you for a moment? There are people who'd like to meet you. It'll be something worth being proud of."

I thought I knew what it was about.

"Understood."

I gave a light bow and went back to the seats.

"All right. From this moment you have one week for job placement. Your scores should all be out by now, so go into the app and check them."

Hong Si-yu switched the microphone back on.

"Once you've confirmed your scores and submitted your applications, you're free to go out."

All through the hall, Awakeners checked their scores and either screamed or whooped.

"Agh! I dropped out of the safe zone for public agencies!"

"I can go to GL! Fuck!"

"I got the fire department!"

I went back and sat down beside Lee Hae-il.

"Hyung-nim! I got a 90!"

"Congratulations."

Grinning bright, she held out her phone to show me the score. Points were listed across five categories — written exam, field training, practical test, character, and miscellaneous — and the remarks column carried a one-line review.

High praise.

The grade of the ability was higher than the Awakeners around us, too. Where the others were still F-rank, or F+ at best, this was a solid E-rank.

"What'd you get, Hyung-nim?"

I checked at once.

"A hundred."

"Figures, sir."

A perfect score was a matter of course, and the one-line review was something I had heard once or twice even in my fencing days.

"Where to go, that's the problem, sir."

"Money, honor, or safety. Figure out which one matters most."

"Where are you going, Hyung-nim?"

"Saetbyeol Guild. I meant to go there from the start."

"I'm no good at calls like this, so I'm just following you, Hyung-nim."

"You kidding me? Think harder."

Lee Hae-il said she would follow me.

"You could get chewed up by a beast, crunch-crunch, and end up screaming, 'If only I hadn't followed that swordsman bastard!'"

I tried to stop her.

"Well. Money's money, but I came into this world to aim for the top anyway, sir. If it isn't the worst, it ought to be the best, right?"

But Lee Hae-il was someone who matched me in that, at least.

"If that's how it is."

I looked at those eyes, bright amber and full of the will to climb, and nodded. You couldn't talk a person with eyes like that out of it.

"Don't know if we'll get the same department, but let's do this right."

"When we get out, let's get a meal. My treat."

"Shall we?"

A chime.

"Hold on."

A note had come in on the app.

"I'm stepping out for a minute."

"H-Hyung-nim! The one who sent that—?!"

"Shh."

I set a finger to my lips for Lee Hae-il, whose eyes had gone wide, and left the clamorous auditorium.